At 12, I Knew That The Point

The Difference Between People And Ideas Is... Only Superficial.

There Are Credentials For Admission To Our Democratic Society [...]. You Have To Be Educated In Order To Be A Participant In Our Conversation So We Are Going To Go Right On Trying To Discredit You In The Eyes Of Your Children, Trying To Strip Your Fundamentalist Religious Community Of Dignity, Trying To Make Your Views Seem Silly Rather Than Discussable. We Are Not So Inclusivist As To Tolerate Intolerance Such As Yours.

Freedom Is The Recognition Of Contingency.

As Long As We Try To Project From The Relative And Conditioned To The Absolute And Unconditioned, We Shall Keep The Pendulum Swinging Between Dogmatism And Skepticism. The Only Way To Stop This Increasingly Tiresome Pendulum Swing Is To Change Our Conception Of What Philosophy Is Good For. But That Is Not Something Which Will Be Accomplished By A Few Neat Arguments. It Will Be Accomplished, If It Ever Is, By A Long, Slow Process Of Cultural Change - That Is To Say, Of Change In Common Sense, Changes In The Intuitions Available For Being Pumped Up By Philosophical Arguments.

I Think You Can Have A Left That Isn't Culturally Conservative Talking About Lunch-bucket Issues.